Nigeria Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, has once again reiterated the stance that the federal government can no long sustain fuel subsidy at N250 billion monthly. ayokinews.com reports
Speaking with State House correspondents shortly after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, Zainab stated that fuel subsidy payments was no longer sustainable in the country.
The Finance Minister further explained that the Nigerian federal government will finally put an end to fuel subsidy by 2022 and replace it with N5,000 naira monthly transportation grant to 30-40 million poorest Nigerians.
“So the Petroleum Industry Act has a provision that all petroleum products must be deregulated. And in the 2022 budget, we made a provision to assume that at the maximum by the end of June, we must exit subsidy.
Nigeria Govt To Replace Fuel Subsidy With N5,000 Transport Grant
“So this last FAAC, the subsidy cost to the federation was N243 billion. So if we look at a cost of about N250 billion per month, and it has been increasing consistently. So we’re expecting something around N120 billion per month from NNPC. And now we’re getting to a point where NNPC is remitting near zero.
“And if we don’t stop we will get to a point where they will tell you: ‘Pay me this for managing the fuel provision in the country’.
“So if you take N250 billion times 12 months, that is about N3 trillion. If we don’t remove that, that is what it is costing us. This is money that we can use to apply to health and education,” Zainab said.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/25/oil-iea-chief-criticizes-artificial-tightness-in-energy-markets.html
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